172 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



of such act, and the person so offering and failing as 

 aforesaid, and being otherwise qualified, shall bo en- 

 titled to vote in the same manner and to the same 

 extent as if he had in fact performed such act. 



" That is not provided for in the House bill. 

 "We say in this section that if the man offers to 

 perform the prerequisites required by State 

 law, and is prevented, that offer shall be equiva- 

 lent to a performance, and when he presents 

 his affidavit his vote shall be received. "What 

 is the objection to receiving his vote under 

 those circumstances ? If he is a legal voter, 

 in every other way qualified, his vote ought to 

 be received, whether he is actually registered 

 or not. 



"The fourth section of the bill presented by 

 the Judiciary Committee provides 



That if any person by force, bribery, threats, or in- 

 timidation, or otherwise, shall hinder, delay, prevent, 

 or obstruct, or attempt to hinder, delay, prevent, or 

 obstruct, any citizen from doing any act authorized 

 by this act to be done 



"I will say 'required to be done' I pro- 

 pose to amend that phraseology at the proper 

 time 



to qualify him to vote or from voting at any election 

 as aforesaid, such person shall for every such offence 

 forfeit and pay the sum of $500 to the person ag- 

 grieved thereby. 



"Here, if any person by any means by 

 fraud, force, or violence prevents a man either 

 from registering or paying taxes, or doing any 

 act necessary to qualify him to vote, or if by 

 fraud or violence he prevents him from voting, 

 he is guilty of a misdemeanor; and I under- 

 take to say that that fourth section alone is 

 worth three times the whole House bill. It 

 will meet three times as many cases as the 

 House bill. The fourth section standing alone 

 is worth more than the whole House bill put 

 together. It makes it an offence to interfere 

 with the registration by outsiders and for out- 

 siders or anybody to interfere with voters. 



"Then the fifth section contains this pro- 

 vision : 



That any person who shall be deprived of any of- 

 fice, except that of member of Congress or member 

 of a State Legislature, by reason of the violation of 

 the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to recover 

 possession of such office by writ of mandamus or 

 other appropriate proceeding; and the circuit and 

 district courts of the United States shall have con- 

 current jurisdiction of all cases arising under this 

 section. 



"The Senator from Ohio (Mr. Thurman) 

 criticised this section because the word ' man- 

 damus' is used in it. I undertake to say that 

 a mandamus is an appropriate proceeding in 

 all cases where there is a refusal to count the 

 votes. Cases may very frequently arise where 

 the officers will refuse to count the votes at all 

 because negroes have voted. 



"Now, for the rest of our bill, it is simply 

 providing the machinery to put the bill in mo- 

 tion ; and I want to call the attention of the 

 Senate to that. We have the machinery, sub- 

 stantially, of the civil rights act to put the bill 

 in motion. The House bill merely makes it an 



offence to do certain things, covering about 

 one-half the ground ; and it makes it an 

 offence punishable in the United States district 

 courts. Who is going to do it? What is that 

 going to amount to ? Who is going to be prose- 

 cutor ? The Senate bill goes on and not only 

 gives the United States courts jurisdiction, but 

 requires the circuit judges to appoint commis- 

 sioners wherever it may be necessary if ne- 

 cessary, in every precinct to arrest and pun- 

 ish parties. It empowers the marshal to aid 

 those commissioners, and to summon the posse 

 comitatus whenever it may be necessary. It 

 further empowers the commissioners to ap- 

 point special officers to enforce their writs, and 

 it empowers the President of the United 

 States to aid the courts in the enforcement of 

 the law. You have got the agents here in this 

 bill a system which was matured when the 

 civil rights act was passed, giving agencies to 

 enforce the bill. Merely declaring it an of- 

 fence, and leaving anybody to prosecute it that 

 pleases, and making no further provision, will 

 be a dead letter. It also provides for paying 

 these officers. 



"I do not want to occupy the time of the 

 Senate in the particular discussion of this bill. 

 I can tell the effect of the Senate bill in a mo- 

 ment. In the first place, it makes it the duty 

 of all officers charged with doing any act 

 which is a prerequisite to voting to furnish 

 to all men, without distinction of color, an 

 equal opportunity of performing it. In the 

 next place, if a person is otherwise qualified to 

 vote, and attempts to qualify himself by regis- 

 tering, or paying taxes, performing the acts 

 required, and he fails by reason of being un- 

 lawfully prevented, then he shall go to the 

 polls with his vote. The next section provides 

 that if any person this goes outside of the of- 

 ficers intimidate him while he is attempting to 

 qualify himself by performing the prerequisites, 

 or by any other unlawful means attempt to pre- 

 vent him from performing that prerequisite, or if 

 any person shall prevent him unlawfully from 

 voting by threats or by any other mode of ob- 

 struction, then that person shall be guilty of 

 an offence. The next section provides that 

 the candidate who is entitled to his office by 

 reason of the refusal of boards of canvassers, 

 or otherwise, to count the colored vote, may 

 have his action to obtain possession of his of- 

 fice. The rest of it is the machinery of the 

 civil rights bill modified to suit the emergen- 

 cies of the case, whereby you have agents to 

 enforce the law, and the power of the Gov- 

 ernment to protect the voters in a fair oppor- 

 tunity to record their votes. 



"Now, Mr. President, I move to strike out 

 all after the enacting clause of the House bill, 

 and to insert : 



That all citizens of the United States who are or 

 shall be otherwise qualified by law to vote at any 

 election by the people in any State, Territory, dis- 

 trict, county, city, parish, township, school district, 

 municipality, or other territorial subdivision, shiill 

 be entitled and allowed to vote at all such elections, 



